Familiar name bids to manage Lowell Memorial Auditorium

Global Spectrum also runs Tsongas Center

By Evan Lips, elips@lowellsun.com

Updated:
02/01/2013 06:35:00 AM EST

LOWELL -- Just one suitor is stepping up to ask the city's grand old dame for a dance.

The chance to manage the 90-year-old Lowell Memorial Auditorium now rests solely in the hands of the same company that oversees the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell, after Thursday's 11 a.m. deadline for bid submissions came and went.

Michael Vaughn, the city's chief procurement officer, pointed out, however, that worldwide venue manager Global Spectrum must first present a suitable plan to an evaluation committee before it can close in on a contract to oversee the city-owned building.

Thursday's deadline had originally been set for Jan. 24, but Vaughn explained at the time that city officials agreed to extend it by a week to address questions from several interested groups. After a Jan. 8 pre-bid conference, representatives from Global Spectrum, based in Philadelphia, along with representatives from an Iowa-based company called VenuWorks, toured the auditorium.

The third party to express interest was the auditorium's current general manager, Peter Lally. Lally said Thursday that the decision not to bid on the opportunity to continue managing the facility "was difficult."

"In the end I came to the conclusion that submitting a qualifying response to this RFP (request for proposals) was not a good business decision for my company at the time," he wrote in an email. "I wish the organizations that take over operation of the auditorium on July 1 a great deal of success.

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"I know they will take as much pride in being a part of the Lowell Memorial Auditorium as I have."

Lally added that he started a new company, Spectacle Management, with the intent of pursuing management of the auditorium.

In early November the current managing company, Mill City Management, announced publicly that it would not be seeking to renew the contract that expires at the end of June this year. Owners Tom McKay, Leo Creegan and Terry McCarthy have run the auditorium under the Mill City Management banner since 1995.

The contract is for a five-year term. When Mill City Management signed its last contract with the city in 2008, the terms stipulated that "city funding subject to annual appropriation" would be no less than $446,750. Any money generated "in excess of its required operating expense budget" would be split, with 40 percent going to Mill City Management and 60 percent going toward any capital improvements to the facility that the city deemed necessary.

Over the years, however, city officials have reduced that subsidy to roughly $320,000.

Vaughn said the goal is to have Global Spectrum's proposal finalized by Feb. 15. The evaluation team for the auditorium bid review includes Vaughn, Assistant City Manager Adam Baacke, Lowell Chief Financial Officer Tom Moses, Lowell Cultural Organization Director Susan Halter and a yet-to-be-determined member of the Lowell Memorial Auditorium board of trustees.

Vaughn said an evaluation committee must still meet to dissect Global Spectrum's offer to make sure it "meets the scope of what we asked for and what is best for the city."

Four other companies had also expressed interest in the opportunity, Vaughn said. They included Nashville-based Venue Solutions Group, Venue & Event Enterprises of Lowell and two Pennsylvania-based groups -- PA Sports & Entertainment and SMG World.

Global Spectrum may be known in Lowell for its management of the Tsongas Center, but the company also boasts a lengthy list of clients that includes theaters, performing-arts centers and amphitheaters.

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